Parker on same-sex marriage ruling: 'At last!'

Mayro Annise Parker, the first openly gay leader of a major American city, cheered the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling ensuring the legality of same-sex marriage nationwide Friday morning.

"At last! What a joyous, historic day for America, the LGBT community, individual families, the institution of marriage and the fight for equality," the mayor said in a prepared statement. "I used to think that I would not see this day in my lifetime. In recent years, however, it's been clear that personal hearts and minds, and the courts, were headed in this direction.

"Marriage is about love, commitment and family," she continued. "Couples who make that commitment deserve to be respected under (the) law, with the full legal protections that accompany a marriage license. Finally, they are!"

Parker and her partner of more than two decades, local accountant Kathy Hubbard, were married in January 2014 in California.

Parker had previously said that she would not get married until the union was legal in Texas, including as recently as June 2013, when the court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. But she acknowledged a shift in thinking months later, noting that her youngest daughter had asked, "Does this mean you're going to go out and marry mommy now?" after the Defense of Marriage Act ruling.

"I also am conscious of the messages I send to my own kids," Parker said then.

When Parker first took office in 2009, she pledged to put the city before social advocacy. Nationally, she often is seen as the gay mayor of Houston, though Parker has said she works to ensure she is seen as the mayor who happens to be gay, repeatedly saying, "The best thing I can do for my community is to be a great mayor of Houston."

Conservatives have accused her of reneging on that pledge, particularly in 2012 when she joined 78 mayors in calling for equal marriage rights for gay couples. The criticism intensified last year when she pushed through the City Council a divisive nondiscrimination ordinance that extended new protections to gay and transgender residents, along with other groups already protected by state and federal laws.

Parker was addressing DHS Pride, an LGBT employee group within the Department of Homeland Security, when the ruling was announced Friday morning.

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